By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
In last night’s (12/1) post-game press conference of the Crvena Zvezda victory over Fenerbahce, Zeljko Obradovic commented on the behavior of the Serbian team’s fans, stating that they shouted “You are Turkish, you are Turkish” to him.
As Crvena Zvezda president Nebojsa Covic said in an official announcement, the chants were directed towards Bogdan Bogdanovic, who received the ire of some fans because of his prior experience to Partizan Belgrade, Red Star’s arch-rival.
“BC Red Star is big of a club, and Mr. Zeljko Obradovic a really great coach, the biggest in Europe, for the match which was played on Thursday night in Belgrade, to be remembered by shadows of the statement on the alleged” orchestrated ” insults from the stands, at the expense of the opposing coach.”
The EuroLeague games of Crvena Zvezda (not only this season) are characterized by an atmosphere which everyone described as the noisiest and most ardent in Europe. And thus we are proud. We are also proud of the fact that we’ll never base our sports ambitions on insults, whether they come from the stands, or anyone and on any basis. These things belong with some other times and other people, and was considered a “normal” behavior back then.
That’s because, while I am on this position and while I represent such a big club, I’ll put on an effort so that such things won’t happen to someone else, but not to anyone insinuates us such things come to mind, and they are in some kind of club organization.
The club has carefully reviewed footage of the match. There’s no offensive behavior towards Zeljko Obradovic, especially in the way it was described during the press conference. If we, despite everything some media play the clip offensive chants towards Zeljko Obradovic advance express regret. The insulting chants were towards our national team player Bogdan Bogdanovic. I do not support them and I think of them as an ugly segment of our sport. I also thank Bogdan for being fair and understanding as he expressed in his statements after the game.
Fenerbahce was constantly winning in Belgrade, until last night, in a convincing and well-deserved way And every time we shook their hands and congratulated them for playing better, because of healthy sports rivalry. There wasn’t anything different in the atmosphere of the previous games from the atmosphere that was seen on Thursday (12/1).
After the press conference of Zeljko Obradovic, we talked on the phone with him and fully clarified the situation. We agreed that it will not affect the relations between our two clubs, as well as our personal friendship. I appreciate coach Obradovic, with whom i cooperated with as president of KSJ (Yugoslavian Basketball Federation) during our trophy years in 1996 and 1997.”
For Red Star, all the people in the club, fans and people related to the sport in general the most important impression and memory of this match for sure is that we beat Fenerbahce in one extraordinary game. “